PREVIEW: Toy + The Proper Ornaments, The Grafham Water Sailing Club @ The Rainbow, Fri 21st Feb -

Toy come back to Birmingham on Friday 21^st Feb, headlining The Rainbow in Digbeth with support from The Proper Ornaments and The Grafham Water Sailing Club – brought to you by Birmingham Promoters (new trees have been planted to combat the environmental impact of this event’s bill posters).

Out on the road with a new album, Join the Dots – released through Heavenly Records in Dec ’13, Toy have been touring nearly non-stop since last October; including one support slot with Palma Violets and full tour support with Placebo across Europe. Toy also recently headlined a 10 date tour across North American and Canada, returning to the UK for their first home country gig of 2014 on Feb 18^th. Toy were last in Birmingham supporting Pacebo the O2 Academy on Dec 12^th 2013.

Formed in 2010, Toy played their first gig supporting The Lexingtons in December that year. Usually catagorised somewhere between Psychedelic and Punk, Toy’s first eponymous album is a 12 track wave of heavy shoegazing, produced by Dan Carey.

Join the Dots, again produced by Carey, carries 11 tracks with a lighter (sort of kind of) approach, jumping between Swervedriveresque (Mescal Head) riffs, pneumatic baselines and raw & ethereal melodies. A touch calmer (…?) tune friendly and structured (..???) than their first LP endevour, Join the Dots is an exciting evolution for Toy – a band who could have disappeared beneath their own hype but appear to be swimming gracefully.

And with a tour schedule that would test the hardiest Dylan backing band, Toy are not shy of on stage endorsement. Toy‘s Rainbow gig on Friday will be the second in an over 40 date tour across Europe – ending just in time for a solid festival season.

Toy play at The Rainbow on Friday 21^st Feb, with support from The Proper Ornaments & The Grafham Water Sailing Club.

John Noblet will be there for a Birmingham Review – with pics from Jonathan Morgan.

Share this: